


Getting Through It

by DarkMasterofCupcakes



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Great-Aunt Castaspella is gonna knit all the baby clothes, Passive-Aggressive Sisters-in-Law, Pregnancy, Shipper on Deck Castaspella, Shotgun Wedding, Shotgun marriage anyway, Takes place in the same universe as my other She-Ra stories, Unplanned Pregnancy, Worried Mom Angella
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 22:21:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18508234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkMasterofCupcakes/pseuds/DarkMasterofCupcakes
Summary: Thanks to a combination of seemingly random illness and some less than tactful comments from her friends, Glimmer realizes she's going to have a baby. After she manages to tell Bow the news, things just spiral from there, sometimes in ways she never would have expected.





	1. Chapter 1

If there was any time when Glimmer was super grateful that one of the powers she’d gotten was the ability to teleport, this was certainly it. 

As she began to sit up in her bed, the princess of Bright Moon felt the beginnings of a now all-too-familiar churning sensation in her stomach. 

Without even bothering to grab her cape or boots, she activated her power without a second thought, reappearing in the bathroom less than a second later. Thankfully, the room was unoccupied when she entered, and almost as soon as she’d materialized inside of the room, the young woman found herself practically collapsing on the floor in front of the toilet. 

Glimmer barely had a second to register the slight shock to her knees from hitting the ground, before she found herself throwing up for what felt like the millionth time that week. And considering said week was only about halfway done, that was an almost impressive feat, in a morbid sense of the word “impressive”. 

It didn’t exactly help that it wasn’t even as thought she’d only been getting sick for the past few days. This had been going on more or less daily for weeks, though some days it was definitely worse than others; the past few days had been especially bad. Unfortunately, it seemed like today was going to be putting in a serious effort on being the worst one yet…and it might very well succeed in that endeavor. 

Glimmer found herself clinging to the bowl of the toilet in front of her like a life preserver as she felt her stomach start to jump again, a precursor to what was about to happen. 

Sure enough, less than a second later found her throwing up once again, still leaning against the bowl to steady herself, even a little bit. 

There was a small part of her brain that kept screaming that something was definitely wrong. However, that tiny little voice that kept trying to get her attention was quickly drowned out by the overwhelming feeling of nausea that overtook her once again. 

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, it seemed like the ordeal was finally over. 

Groaning slightly, Glimmer pulled herself up onto somewhat unsteady feet…only to nearly fall to the ground when she turned around; a result of seeing Adora standing incredibly close, despite having never heard her come in. 

“Why didn’t you knock?” Glimmer demanded to know, her shock causing the tone to come out much harsher than she had intended. 

The blonde looked somewhat taken aback, but honestly looked more confused than anything. 

“Glimmer…the door was wide open,” she told her, gesturing to the door to help illustrate her point. “I was standing right outside for five minutes.” 

Glimmer felt her cheeks starting to warm up, though she wasn’t sure if it was even noticeable to her friend, considering she was no doubt already flushed from throwing up. 

The look of concern that passed over Adora’s face as she looked at Glimmer was subtle, but definitely still there. It was clear that she was trying to avoid showing that she was worried. 

Whether it was because of her upbringing in the Horde – a place where any signs of weakness were either looked down upon or ignored, depending on how your fellow soldiers viewed you – or simply because she was hoping to avoid making the other girl feel bad, it was hard to say. 

All Glimmer knew was that she still didn’t feel good, at all, and Adora looking at her like that was not helping. 

“I’m just gonna go back to bed – it’s too early to talk,” she announced. However, as she tried to teleport back to her room, she found herself pausing partway through, her stomach churning violently. 

Now Adora wasn’t even bothering to try and hide her concern, the emotion clear on her face as Glimmer’s form became totally solid once more. “Glimmer…what’s wron-?” 

Before she could finish her question, the other girl had whipped around and once again collapsed on the floor in front of the toilet, her body shaking as she started to dry heave. Even though she was pretty certain her stomach had been emptied moments before, apparently her body was very determined on being doubly sure she didn’t have anything settled in her stomach. 

Thankfully, it didn’t last as long this time, though she was even more drained from this experience than the last one. So much in fact that she just sort of leaned against the toilet, breathing deeply as she waited for her strength to return. It didn’t exactly help that she knew Adora was still in the room, and that she was still looking at her with the same concerned expression as before; or, more likely, with an even more concerned expression, considering recent events. 

“I…I’m going back to bed,” Glimmer said once again as she got to her feet. She was still a little unsteady, but managed to stay standing. 

She briefly considered trying to teleport again, both to get back to her room faster and also to escape her friend – who was no longer even trying to hide the fact that she was worried. 

But, considering what happened the last time she tried using her powers, she decided not to risk it. Maybe (hopefully) that last time was just a weird coincidence or something, but either way, the memory was recent, and unpleasant, enough that she was in no rush to chance it happening again. 

So, she started to walk back to her bedroom. For a few seconds, it seemed like the issue was going to be dropped, but it didn’t take long before Glimmer could just barely hear the quiet footsteps behind her. 

In Adora’s defense, the only reason her friend noticed her walking behind was because the halls of the castle were more or less empty this late at night, and the open space carried sound exceptionally well. It didn’t change the fact that her actions were starting to get on Glimmer’s nerves. 

She stopped just outside her bedroom door and turned around, ready to insist that she was fine and instruct her friend to just go back to bed herself. However, when she saw the expression on the other girl’s face, she just couldn’t bring herself to be that abrasive, even if she really did want to be left alone at the moment. 

“Adora, I promise, I’m fine,” she tried to insist. 

In truth, she was trying to convince herself of the statement just as much as she was trying to convince her friend…and she had the strangest feeling that she wasn’t really being successful in regards to either endeavor. 

She started to walk over to the seat by her window, planning to just rest there for a few moments before trying to teleport into her bed again. 

To her credit, Adora didn’t follow her, though she did take a step into the room once Glimmer had moved out of the doorway. 

“The last time your powers messed up like that was when you were glitching,” Adora said bluntly, making it very clear what her main concern was. “And you’ve told me before that you can’t get sick, either, but you’ve been getting sick like this for a while now. Something’s got to be going on with you, and I don’t know what.” 

Glimmer groaned, the sound being muffled as she covered her face with both hands. It was way too early for this…or too late…whichever it was, she was too tired to deal with any of this right now. 

“Adora…” she began, her voice still muffled by the hands over her face. She removed her hands as she continued her statement. “I’m pretty much a hundred percent sure that I’m not glitching again – nothing hurts and I’m pretty sure my powers are working. I just got sick when trying to use them, that’s all.” 

The Princess of Bright Moon looked over at her friend to see how she was responding to what she was saying. And frowned when she noticed the somewhat skeptical look on the other girl’s face. Obviously her friend was not going to be so easily convinced that there wasn’t anything going on with her. 

Though, to be completely fair, Glimmer herself was starting to wonder if maybe there was actually something weird happening; she was just too tired to really think about it at the moment – this was not worth losing more sleep over. 

However, just as she was about to try and argue her point further, Catra suddenly popped into the doorway as well, yawning as she stretched out her muscles, including briefly straightening out her tail. 

For a brief moment, Glimmer felt a surge of relief; maybe Catra would be able to convince Adora to go back to bed with her, or at least distract her enough so that she could go back to sleep for a few more hours before having to deal with more questioning. 

Then, without bothering to ask for permission or even acting like she needed to, Catra simply stepped into Glimmer’s bedroom, walking across the floor until she was leaning on the wall beside her. 

“You still getting sick?” she asked, her tone making it all too clear that she already knew the answer. 

She seemed to be trying to act casual, but the way the end of her tail was flicking back and forth betrayed the fact that she was just as concerned as Adora was about their mutual friend; she was just better at hiding it. 

Glimmer sighed and nodded, knowing there was no use in trying to deny it. Not only would Adora likely end up revealing the truth anyway if her girlfriend pushed the issue, but she could swear that the cat-girl had some kind of sixth sense when it came to things like this. 

The frown on Catra’s face grew slightly and she went from leaning up against the wall next to the window seat to plopping herself down next to the other girl. Glimmer flinched back slightly at this sudden disregard for personal space, especially shocked because Catra was normally not one to do something like this. 

“Look, I’m fine,” Glimmer insisted again, starting to feel genuinely unnerved by the attention she was getting. “Throwing up so much is really annoying, yeah, but I’m pretty sure it’s nothing to worry about.” 

“What I don’t get is how you’re throwing up like every day, and you’ve still gotten fatter,” Catra commented. 

As though to help illustrate her point, she poked the Commander in the belly as she made this observation, causing her to let out a small yelp of surprise before shoving her hand away. Her cheeks were warm as she objected to this accusation, giving her friend a glare as she got over the initial surprise of the earlier touch and it was replaced by anger and indignation at how little tact the former Horde second showed. 

The only response Catra gave to his protest was to raise her eyebrows. 

Adora, on the other hand, looked visibly uncomfortable from her spot near the door, as she seemed to be arguing with herself on whether to say what was on her mind or not. “You kinda have.” 

Apparently one side had won the argument; and judging by the way her eyes widened slightly as the words left her mouth, it seemed like even she was shocked by who the winner actually was. 

As Adora started to apologize and Catra just choked on her attempts to contain her laughter, Glimmer briefly felt her face heat up to the point where she’d swear her head was on fire, before she started to think about what her friends’ had said.

Obviously she hadn’t appreciated the comments – and she especially hadn’t appreciated the dark-haired girl just poking her stomach like that, even if she had taken the time to retract her claws so the gesture was only annoying, rather than painful. She also had to consider the fact that, if they both agreed on something like this, it was more than likely true. 

Without much conscious thought, Glimmer suddenly stood up from the seat near her window. 

The suddenness of the action apparently surprised Catra, who let out a slightly strangled sounding noise as she got to her feet. Either her or Adora might have said something; Glimmer wasn’t really paying much attention. 

The only thing she was entirely focused on was the mirror that had been set up in the corner of the room. 

Normally, she didn’t really the thing much attention, outside of special occasions, where she needed to figure out what she was going to wear. For some reason, while she never really cared too much about how she looked every other day, she always cared a lot about what kind of outfit she wore to a party, at least if it was more than just her and her friends. 

Outside of that, the mirror tended to go unused, just sitting in the corner until the next celebration came up….Or until the Bright Moon Commander decided she needed to double-check on whether her friends were right in their assessment on the changes to her body. 

She examined her reflection for a moment, furrowing her brow as she looked at her stomach. Now that she was really looking closely, it did sort of seem like it was a bit bigger…

Trying her best to ignore the lump that was slowing forming in her throat, as well as the fact that she could already feel herself starting to shake, Glimmer lifted up her top just enough to reveal her stomach – it wasn’t like she was worried about Adora or Catra seeing her like this, and even if she would have been, she had other things on her mind; things that were much more important. 

“Oh…wow…” she muttered to herself as she looked at the reflection of her now uncovered stomach in the mirror. 

Without her shirt covering it up, it was pretty hard now to deny the fact that her stomach had swollen slightly – not a ton, but enough that the difference could actually be noted. Still, there was something that was seriously bothering her as she continued to stare at the image in the mirror. She just wasn’t exactly sure what exactly was bothering her, or what she was actually looking for. 

Turning to the side, Glimmer noticed something that made her pause: not only was her belly looking a little swollen, but she could swear that it looked…different from normal. 

Looking closely, and at this angle, she realized that there was a slight, but distinct, curve to it. She continued to scrutinize her reflection for several seconds, when all of a sudden, something clicked inside of her brain and she froze, eyes wide. 

“I’m pregnant,” she muttered, not even realizing that she’d said the words aloud until she heard Adora asking her to clarify what she’d just said. Glimmer didn’t respond to the question; she was still pretty shocked by her discovery. 

Allowing her shirt to fall from her grip and cover up her up once more, she backed away from the mirror as though it was some terrifying force to be avoided at all costs. 

At first she simply paced around her bedroom, her already messy hair getting even more disheveled as she pulled at it in her panicked wanderings. 

Instinctively, she went to teleport – something she often did when her thoughts were as tumultuous as they were at the moment – only to find what happened in the bathroom happening once again. Just as she was about to transport herself from one place to another, she felt the familiar sensation fade away, replaced by an almost overwhelming feeling of nausea – and now of some slight pain in her stomach, probably caused by the nausea combined with the fact that she was positive her stomach was totally empty.

It was bad enough that she stumbled back over to the window-seat, resting her elbows on her knees and putting her face into her palms as she groaned, “This cannot be happening…” 

Catra just looked at her with a neutral expression (though knowing Catra, it was very likely that she was just keeping her emotions from showing too clearly), while Adora just seemed confused by what was going on. 

She moved away from the door, having shut it out of respect for her friend’s privacy when Glimmer had lifted up her shirt to examine her belly more closely, and was now standing on her other side. 

She glanced down at her friend, who still had her face buried in her hands, and was still grumbling in disbelief to herself, before turning to her girlfriend. Even though they’d both been about the same distance away when Glimmer had made her discovery, Catra did have much better hearing; maybe she’d actually caught what their mutual friend had said before. 

“What’s going on?” she whispered to Catra, who briefly glanced at the Commander before looking back up at Adora. 

“It looks like archer-boy doesn’t shoot blanks, ‘cause turns out Sparkles here is having a baby,” she said simply, her tone just barely tinged with the vaguest hint of laughter as she spoke. 

Those words seemed to trigger something in Glimmer, as her head suddenly flew off her palms as she snapped her head to look at the former Horde strategist; she’d moved so fast that the other women in the room were almost shocked that she had gotten whiplash. 

“Catra!” Glimmer half-gasped and half-shouted. “That is not helping!” 

Either because her brain was once again going wild, or maybe just because she no longer felt comfortable sitting by her friends, the heir to Bright Moon once again got to her feet and started pacing. 

Keeping her eyes on Glimmer as she paced, Adora’s expression had gone from wide-eyed back to somewhat baffled. She continued to watch as her friend walked around her room, muttering to herself as she continued to wear down the carpet with her constant movement. 

“How did this…I can’t believe it…” Glimmer said, walking past. Her voice cracked from the pure emotion; and Adora and Catra both chose not to point that out – they figured it wouldn’t help anyone to do so. Adora, however, did comment on something else. 

“Is having a baby a bad thing?” she questioned in a completely innocent way. 

She really hadn’t meant anything negative by the question – far from it. But, Glimmer’s less-than-positive initial reaction to learning about her pregnancy was bringing back memories from her time growing up in the Horde as a child. Specifically, when they were taught about sex and reproduction, and most importantly, how pregnancy was to be avoided, because having a child while being employed as a Horde solider would mean the highest level of disgrace and result in you being thrown out to fend for yourself in the unforgiving landscape of the Fright Zone and whatever lay beyond its borders. 

Having had some indirect experience with pregnancy since joining the Rebellion, Adora had started to realize just how wrong that was, but Glimmer’s reaction was making her wonder if maybe there was some degree of truth to what she’d been taught growing up. 

Despite the innocent nature of the inquiry, Glimmer jerked to a stop upon hearing it. It seemed as though Adora’s question had been enough to finally snap the slightly younger girl out of her panicked thoughts. 

“Well, no, it’s not really a bad thing…” she began, her nervous tone beginning to be replaced by a thoughtful one. “It’s just…” 

She sighed and plopped herself down onto a plush chair that was nearby. “This is a really big deal, you know? My whole life is gonna be different now, and it’s kinda hard to wrap my head around it.” 

The princess wrapped her arms around herself, a sign that she was starting to become unsure of herself, and maybe even a little nervous. Her companions looked at her in a mixture of concern and confusion, neither seeming to know if they should question the reason for her behavior at the moment or not. 

Finally, Adora decided to breech the subject, somewhat hesitantly asking, “What’s on your mind?” 

She was clearly trying to avoid actually pointing out how upset her friend looked; presumably out of hope that doing such would keep Glimmer from getting more upset than she already seemed to be. 

“I was just thinking about how I’ve gotta tell Bow about this,” Glimmer explained, glancing down at the floor out of the corner of her eye. “What if he…?” 

She didn’t finish her sentence, but she really didn’t have to; it was easy enough for the other women in the room to guess what she was so worried about. If anything, they were more surprised that they hadn’t already guessed that was what was on her mind, considering what they knew about their friend. Then again, maybe they hadn’t immediately jumped to the right conclusion in regards to her obvious fear because, well, what she was worried about honestly sounded somewhat ridiculous when either of them actually thought about it. 

A brief look was exchanged between the two before Catra coughed softly and nodded her head in Glimmer’s direction; an obvious insistence that the Princess of Power be the one to address the issue. 

This earned her a brief glare from her girlfriend, but no actual protest, and for good reason. Not only was Adora better at dealing with emotional stuff than Catra – if only marginally – but the simple fact of the matter was that, out of the two, she was far closer to Glimmer. 

Between the two of them, the blonde woman was far more likely to be able to speak with the princess in a way that didn’t trigger another panicked ramble. 

“I’m sure Bow will be fine with it, Glimmer,” she said in the most assuring tone she could muster. She had gotten quite a bit better at it since leaving the Horde about half a decade prior. 

Unfortunately, based on the look on Glimmer’s face, it wasn’t quite working. She didn’t look _more_ worried, per say, but she also didn’t exactly look comforted, either. 

Adora decided it was time to be a little more insistent; maybe that would help get Glimmer to see enough reason to calm down. 

“Bow loves you – we all know that, including you,” she said, her tone still fairly reassuring, though now noticeably tinged with an air of force that it had lacked before. “Do you really think that’s going to change just because you tell him that you guys are having a baby?” 

“Well, no, but…That doesn’t mean he won’t be angry when he finds out,” Glimmer said, getting almost identical expressions of looks of skepticism from the former Horde soldiers. Glimmer noticed the way her friends were looking at her, and immediately tried to defend her reasoning. 

“We never really talked about it too much, but we were using protection, specifically so something like this wouldn’t happen,” she began, her voice growing just a tiny bit louder and more shrill as it became obvious that she was starting to get herself worked up again. 

Suddenly, Adora stood and walked over to her friend, clapping a firm hand on each of her shoulders. The contact hadn’t been hard, but it had been sudden, and that was enough to make the already tense princess jump in her seat; though she did calm down to the point where she was able to give the other girl a questioning look. 

“Glimmer, you need to calm down,” she told the other girl, her expression and voice both giving no room for argument; and to Glimmer’s credit, she did seem at least willing to listen. “Look, literally nobody is going to be dumb enough to call me an expert on this sort of thing, but I’m pretty sure you getting stressed out like this over basically nothing isn’t good for either of you.” 

For the briefest of moments, Glimmer’s eyes drifted down, her gaze lingering on her belly for less than half a second before she took a deep breath and turned her eyes back up to meet Adora’s. 

“Okay.” She honestly sounded more like she was talking out loud to herself, but Adora nodded in response anyway. Grabbing her arms, she pulled her hands away from her shoulders. “Okay. I’m gonna go back to bed, and try to get some sleep. It’s still too early to be up, and way too early to be thinking about all this sort of stuff.” 

There was an obvious attempt to be lighthearted in her tone of voice, even as her true feelings showed clearly in her eyes; neither of her friends said anything to acknowledge the contradiction. Instead, they each simply said their goodnights and left to return to their own bedrooms, closing the door behind them as they exited, and leaving Glimmer alone once more. 

Her more worried thoughts began to work their way back to the front of her mind, but she managed to push them back. 

She hadn’t been lying when she’d said it was too early to be thinking about a topic as heavy as this, especially when there really wasn’t anything she could do about it; she wouldn’t even have a chance to tell Bow the news, and see his reaction, until after the sun was up. 

Plus, Adora did have a point – stressing out so much wasn’t going to be good for her, or for her baby. Even if she was still incredibly scared by the whole idea that she was having a baby, she knew she didn’t want to do anything to hurt them if she could help it. 

So, she took a deep breath in an attempt to keep herself calm, and then let the breath out in a huff as she looked up at her bed, hanging from the ceiling as always. 

On most nights, she loved having her bed elevated like that. When her powers weren’t being super reliable, she wondered what her past self had been thinking when she’d insisted on having a bed that hung from the ceiling, rather than just being on the floor like everyone’s else’s. 

Sure, she could technically sleep – or, more accurately, nap, since she’d be forced to get up in a handful of hours, regardless of if she wanted to her not – on the window seat, or even in a chair if need be; but she really didn’t want to. 

After what she’d recently been through, she really wanted the comforting plush of her bed. And since she didn’t want to risk getting sick again, meaning she couldn’t just teleport, she was incredibly thankful for the floating platforms that led to it. Sure, they could be a bit of a chore to climb, especially when she was tired, but without them, there was zero chance of her managing to get all the way up there on her own. 

Once she managed to get into the bed, she didn’t even bother to get under the covers. She just curled up on top of them and closed her eyes, simply lying there in silence until she was finally able to fall asleep.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun came shining through Glimmer’s window much too soon for her liking, and she let out a low groan as she grabbed one of the extra pillows that were strewn about on her bed and used it to block the light from her eyes. 

She tried to will herself back to sleep, only to let out a groan when she heard a knock at her door. 

Still reluctant to get out of bed, Glimmer stayed quiet, hoping that maybe if she didn’t make a sound, whoever was outside would assume she was still asleep and leave her be – at least for a few minutes. 

When a couple of seconds passed and there was another knock, she whipped the pillow off her face and reluctantly got into a sitting position so she could glare daggers at her bedroom door. 

“Glimmer?” Bow’s voice was somewhat muffled by the door, but still very recognizable. “Are you up? Is it alright if I come in?” 

Glimmer smiled, in spite of the fact that she was still far from happy at being awoken. The archer had always been respectful of her privacy, even after they’d been dating for years; even after they’d already been as intimate as could be, as evidenced by the slight swelling in her abdomen. 

Upon taking an almost unconscious glance down at her belly, Glimmer found her smile fading away. She had almost forgotten that she still had to tell him about the baby until just now. 

“…It’s not locked,” she finally said, in response to his question. It wasn’t technically answering the questioned he’d asked, she knew, but she also knew that he’d understand what she meant. 

Sure enough, less than a second later, the door opened and Bow stepped inside, closing it behind him once he was fully on the other side. 

Without bothering to ask, he made his way up the floating staircase to her bed, sitting on the edge with his feet just barely touching the final step. 

“You feeling any better?” he questioned. He looked at her as he asked, as though trying to figure out the answer for himself; probably because he wasn’t completely sure if she’d be honest in a situation like this. 

Glimmer bit her bottom lip, unable to meet his eye just then. She noticed him frown slightly at this, but now that he was actually here, and she could actually tell him what she’d discovered…She was getting super nervous once again. 

Finally, she settle for just answering his question – albeit in as vague of a way as she figured she could get away with. 

“I got sick again, earlier this morning,” she said, still avoiding looking him in the eye. “But I’m feeling alright now – besides being up way too early, I mean.” 

Glimmer did her best to make her tone sound playful with that last sentence, hoping it would help convince the young man sitting beside her that she was being truthful. Thankfully, whether Bow believed her or not, he didn’t seem to think the issue was worth pressing. 

He scooted back a little until he was sitting fully on her bed, sitting just a few inches away from her. The two of them simply sat together in silence for a few seconds before Bow spoke up. 

“There’s actually something I wanted to talk to you about,” he began, very briefly looking away before meeting her eyes. 

Glimmer felt her heart starting to beat ever so slightly faster at this simple statement. Maybe it was because she had always been anxious about how her relationship – whether platonic or romantic, or both – with Bow was doing at any time, or maybe it was because she was already nervous about her own announcement; either way, hearing him say he wanted to talk to her about something just made her anxiety spike. 

She struggled to keep her emotions under control as she forced herself to swallow the lump that had formed inside of her throat. 

“Really?” she asked, wincing at the slight waver to her voice. “I…I’ve got something I need to tell you, too. But you go first.” 

The fear of what he could possibly want to talk to her about was so intense that she could swear it was emanating off her in waves, but she couldn’t escape the fear that he’d take her news badly; it felt like the lesser of two evils. 

Bow looked uncertain for a moment. An instant passed, during which he seemed ready to ask what she had to tell him. 

However, he seemed to just as quickly realize that doing so would just result in the two of them basically going in circles until one of them finally just said what was on their mind. And apparently whatever he had to say, he figured it was important enough to want to avoid having to deal with any of that. 

“Okay, so…I’ve been thinking about this for a while, actually,” he began. “I mean, we’ve been best friends for a long time, and we’ve been, you know, _together_ for a while now.” 

Glimmer, feeling the lump starting to form in her throat once more, could only nod in response. Her anxiety was starting to spike up again; she had the horrible feeling she was not going to like the direction this was going. She only got more nervous as he continued to speak, not helped at all by the fact that he now seemed unable to meet her eyes for more than a second or so at a time. 

“And, well, maybe it’s a good time for a change. So I was thinking –“

“I’m pregnant.” 

Glimmer clapped her hands to her mouth as the words spilled out, almost of their own volition, her eyes going as wide as they possibly could. 

Bow’s eyes were equally wide, while his mouth just hung open in obvious – and quite understandable – surprise. 

The two of them sat just there, staring at each other, completely dumbstruck, for what felt like hours. Finally, it was Bow who ended the silence, closing his mouth to give an audible gulp before actually managing to speak…if you could call it that. 

“You…You’re pregnant?” he squeaked out, his eyes still very wide as he looked at her. 

“Uh-huh,” Glimmer responded. Her brain was still screaming at her for just blurting the news out like that, when she’d wanted to be so careful about how she was going to tell him. 

He looked down slightly and gestured towards her stomach with a slightly shaky hand. 

“There’s a baby in there?” 

This time, she could only nod; she didn’t trust herself enough to speak right now. 

For a moment, the room was so quiet again that she could have sworn she heard it when he swallowed. 

“Are you sure?” he asked, letting out a hiss of air almost as soon as he got the last word out. Clearly he had not meant to ask the question aloud; or, at least, he’d wanted to ask it in a different way. Still, the question had been asked, and, Glimmer supposed, it needed to be answered. She took a deep breath as she got onto her knees – much to Bow’s confusion, if the look on his face was any indication.

“Yeah,” she said, lifting up her shirt just enough to reveal her stomach. “I’m sure.” 

She lowered her shirt and sat down again, unable to look at him. 

He muttered a soft, “Yeah…I guess you would be pretty sure about it, then…”, and then just stopped talking.

The silence that filled the room was deafening, and Glimmer wanted nothing more than for something, anything to interrupt them. Anything would be better than having to just sit here and wait for what felt like the inevitable. 

She already knew what was going to happen, but waiting for it just made it feel all the worse. But, it didn’t seem like Bow was going to say anything, which meant she had to say it for him. 

“I know you’re angry at me. You have every right to be,” she said, speaking to him, but staring down at her knees instead of even glancing at him. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest that she was certain it was audible even to Bow. 

“Why would you think I’d be angry at you?” 

There was genuine surprise in Bow’s voice, which honestly confused Glimmer more than anything else – enough that she was finally able to get over her fears enough to look at him. Sure enough, confusion (and a bit of concern) was written clear on his face as he looked over at her. 

She blinked at him, silently wondering what was up with his reaction. 

“…Because I got pregnant?” she asked, sounding as though she thought the answer was obvious. When he still just looked at her with concerned confusion, she added, “And we’ve literally never even talked about having kids, ever, much less right now?” 

“Yeah, but I’m just as responsible for this happening as you are – you obviously didn’t get _yourself_ pregnant,” Bow said, reaching out a hand slowly, almost cautiously.

It suddenly dawned on Glimmer that he was reaching out to take her hand, though he seemed to notice how tense she still was, hence the careful nature of his movements; it was as if he expected her to bolt if he moved too suddenly. 

Glimmer moved slowly, carefully, as she had their hands meet, fingers lacing together. It was such a simple gesture, but the princess of Bright Moon could not deny that it was a comforting one; enough to get her to smile a little. 

“Look, Glimmer,” he began, taking a breath. “I’m not gonna try to pretend this isn’t a huge surprise, or that I’m not scared – actually, I’m kinda terrified, if I’m being totally honest. But, if there’s one thing I can definitely say for sure, it’s that I’m not going to leave you. Sure, it’s not gonna be easy, but we’ll get through this fine, together.”

His face took on a thoughtful expression for a moment, as though he was considering what he’d just said. He then looked back at her with a question in his eyes; a question he almost seemed unsure about asking. Glimmer had a feeling she knew what he wanted to ask her, and she gave his hand a gentle squeeze to let him know it was okay to ask. 

“…Do you want the baby?” he finally asked. “Obviously it’s not going to change anything if you don’t, but I thought it might be a good idea to figure that part out now, since, um…” 

He trailed off at the end, his cheeks turning a light shade of red as he started to blush. Clearly he felt he’d started to say something he shouldn’t have – though Glimmer couldn’t help but smile a little at the sight. 

The relief she’d felt when he’d made it clear that he not only wasn’t angry at her for what had happened, but that he wasn’t going to leave her because of it, had felt absolutely amazing. Now she was too happy to care even the tiniest bit about his little slip. She nodded her head to answer his question, the tiniest of smiles on her face. 

“Yeah…I do,” she said, adding a verbal confirmation on top of the physical. “Like you said, it’s kinda scary to think about, but pretty sure we can handle it.” 

Bow smiled back at her, moving slightly closer and leaning slightly to brush his lips against hers, a gesture she was more than happy to reciprocate. 

As their lips parted, they remained close, not quite touching but near enough to each other that the slightest movement would easily change that. They just sat together for a few moments in silence – though this time the tension that had filled the room the previous times they’d be in that situation was…mostly gone; not completely, which was probably to be expected, but neither Bow nor Glimmer seemed bothered enough to care. 

It was after about five minutes had passed that the young man breeched the silence with a question. 

“…How’d your mom react when you told her?” His voice betrayed the nerves that he was clearly trying to hide. 

Glimmer groaned. He just had to ruin the mood with a question like that, didn’t he? Well, okay, it was a fair point to bring up, but that didn’t mean she wanted to think about it.

“She…actually doesn’t know yet,” she confessed with a slightly nervous grin on her face. Upon seeing the look that was forming on her boyfriend’s face, she quickly went to defend herself. 

“I didn’t even know for sure until super early this morning, and I wasn’t exactly in a rush to wake my mom up to tell her. You know she’s gonna be mad enough when she finds out – I don’t need to make it worse.” 

She didn’t even have to look at Bow to know how his face looked, and she didn’t want to give him a chance to say what she already knew he was going to suggest. Before more than a breath could escape from his mouth, she said, “I’m gonna tell her just…not right now.” 

There was a beat of time during which neither of them spoke. Then, Glimmer felt her hand being gently squeezed, and she looked over at Bow, who had once again taken her hand in his. 

“Glimmer, look, I’m scared of how your mom is going to react to learning about this, too. But I get the feeling that it’s going to be about a billion times worse if she finds out on her own, instead of you telling her,” he said, clearly trying to compel her to simply speak with her mother about her condition. 

Glimmer waved a dismissive hand. 

“She’s not gonna find out,” she assured him. 

Bow gave her a skeptical look, just staring at her for several seconds with a raise eyebrow. It was as though he was waiting for her to realize some kind of issue with what she had just said, and when she didn’t seem to catch on, he gave voice to his skepticism. 

“No offense, Glimmer, but I don’t think this is something we’re gonna be able to hide for long.” 

She rolled her eyes and gave him a light swat on the arm. 

“You know what I meant,” she said, smiling slightly to help ensure that he knew she hadn’t meant anything by the swat. 

The two then went back to relaxing once more, with Glimmer leaning slightly against Bow as he adjusted his position slightly to be more comfortable. Glimmer was still somewhat tired, and now that she no longer had the worry of how Bow would react to learning the news to keep her awake, she found herself closing her eyes as she snuggled up against him. 

She was so comfortable that she didn’t even open her eyes when she heard him say, “We do have to tell your mom about the baby, Glimmer. And pretty soon.”

She murmured softly in what might have been agreement. 

It wasn’t until she felt a gentle squeeze on her shoulder that she allowed her eyes to open, albeit reluctantly. She wanted to be angry, but when she saw the look on his face, she found that she just couldn’t. 

“Promise?” he asked, hand still on her shoulder. She didn’t have to ask him to clarify. 

“Yeah,” she said, speaking much more clearly this time. Her eyes darted away from his for a split second as she added, “I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone was wondering, for reference, Glimmer is about three months pregnant at this point. You might wonder how she didn't catch on before this point, but really, I think it's a combination of the symptoms not always being super obvious, and, even more likely, her kinda being in denial. 
> 
> Honestly, she probably at least suspected something was up, but because the very idea scared her so much, she just sort of convinced herself that it probably wasn't what she thought it was. Until now, where she's far enough along that she's got a bit of a baby bump coming in.


	2. Chapter 2

Glimmer huffed as she examined her reflection in the morning, frowning as she scrutinized her midsection in particular. To her annoyance, her stomach was definitely noticeable, even underneath the fairly loose top she’d put on. 

She supposed she had to admit that she shouldn’t have been surprised – she’d already had a bit of a bump when she’d first discovered that she was pregnant, and about a month had passed since then. Obviously she should have expected that her stomach was going to just get bigger as time went on. But, that didn’t mean she was happy about it, especially now that it was getting harder and harder to hide. 

It didn’t exactly help that she had yet to tell even her mother about her pregnancy, in spite of the fact that so much time had passed. 

At first, Bow had seemed to accept her choice; but as the days and eventually the weeks went by, even he was clearly starting to lose patience with Glimmer’s refusal to tell her mother the news. 

“Not a word,” she said, not even glancing over to where her boyfriend was standing, watching as she looked at herself in the mirror.

“Glimmer…” Bow began, completely ignoring the warning. 

It was at that point where the princess finally turned away from the mirror, glaring dagger eyes at him. She just stared at him in silence, as though daring him to continue with his statement. 

Unfortunately, if she was hoping that would be enough to make him decide to stop talking, she was quickly proven wrong. 

“I know you don’t want to tell your mom about this yet,” he began, his tone making it very clear that he sympathized with her, even if his words made it equally apparent that she probably wasn’t going to like the next words that came out of his mouth. “But, I think this is a pretty good sign that now’s the right time to let her know.” 

Glimmer looked away, her eyes looking around at random spots on the floor as she bit her bottom lip and just thought.

He was right; she knew he was right, even if she really, really didn’t want to admit it. Telling her mother that she was pregnant was not exactly the last thing she wanted to do right now, but it was definitely pretty far down the list. 

That was the whole reason she’d gone through so much effort over the past month to act like everything was the same as it had always been; even though she knew that couldn’t be farther from the truth. She did her best to suppress the morning sickness whenever anyone who didn’t already know the truth was around. Thankfully, that was becoming less and less necessary, as it seemed like within a week of her discovery, the instances of her needing to throw up were becoming less frequent, and more tolerable when they did happen. 

But, apparently the universe just wasn’t going to give her a break. Because as her nausea became more manageable, that was when she began to notice just how quickly her stomach seemed to be growing. 

Ever since she’d realized what was going on, she’d begun wearing slightly looser tops to try and make the swelling of her belly less noticeable; but it seemed to be less and less effective with every day that passed. 

Obviously she knew she wasn’t growing that fast, but she also noticed that more of her shirts were feeling increasingly snug, and even the looser ones were becoming less effective in covering her up. She honestly considered it a bit of a miracle that it didn’t seem like anyone had already found out; and she was sort of hoping to keep that luck up for a little longer. 

“Just give me a few more days, then we can tell her,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. 

Bow opened his mouth, obviously in preparation to protest her suggestion. Glimmer spoke up as soon as the first sound left his mouth, interrupting. 

“We’ve got a meeting in two days, and I know my mom’s not exactly gonna be happy when she finds out that I’m pregnant and we’re not even engaged yet. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not have that hanging over my head while everyone is here to talk about Alliance business.” 

An almost pained groan escaped from Bow’s lips as he briefly put his faces in his hands. With his hands still covering up his face, he muttered something, though the actual words were muffled to the point where she couldn’t exactly understand what he was trying to say. Granted, she also wasn’t exactly sure if he was actually talking to her, or just speaking his own thoughts aloud. 

“…Have you told your dads yet?” she asked, hoping to prevent things from becoming too tense. 

Despite his assurances – and she believed him, she really did – her insecurities just couldn’t help but wheedle their way to the front of her brain in times like this. She just wanted to try and lighten up the situation slightly, if only to make sure there was no chance of them actually fighting; the last thing she wanted was for them to start arguing over something like this. 

Bow sighed and shook his head. 

“Not yet,” he admitted, walking over to her window seat and plopping down on the cushion. When she looked at him with a skeptical look on her face, the archer held up his hands defensively. “I love my dads, but I’m not exactly sure if they’d be able to stay quiet about this for very long, and I really don’t want your mom to find out from my dads.” 

The Princess of Bright Moon thought about what he said for a moment, and then gave what could only be described as a groan of reluctant agreement. 

A few seconds passed, during which neither of them spoke. Glimmer thought about their recent conversation, and what her options were at this point. Because, as much as she hated to admit it, Bow was right; she was running out of time when it came to telling her mother about that baby.

In all honesty, she was almost shocked (but very grateful) that her mom hadn’t seemed to notice anything was strange about her and tried to confront her about it. 

At the same time….she really, really wasn’t looking forward to learning how her mom was going to react to learning about her condition, and wanted to put it off for as long as she possibly could; even if that wasn’t going to be too much longer at this rate. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she sighed and looked back to him.

“Just give me two more days, okay?” she requested, giving him a smile in hopes that would convince him. “As soon as everyone goes home after the meeting, I’ll tell my mom about…all this.” 

Even though she knew she didn’t have to clarify, Glimmer found herself gesturing to her stomach at the last part of that statement; which Bow seemed to find a little amusing, judging by the way the corners of his mouth briefly turned up when she did it. Still, he did seem to approve of what she was suggesting, considering he did nod his head slightly once she was done. 

“Do…do you want me to come with you when you tell her?” he asked. His tone seemed mixed, like he was both uncertain of what he expected her to say, yet also somehow hoping for a certain answer. 

Glimmer bit her lower lip slightly in thought. On the one hand, she definitely knew it’d be nice to have a comforting presence with her when she gave her mom the news, especially considering she already knew that the best reaction her mother would have to this was probably freaking out and lecturing her about it. 

However, she wasn’t sure if she wanted Bow to be subjected to the scolding that she was certain would be coming; it wasn’t his fault they were in this situation – well, not all his fault, anyway – and she didn’t think he deserved to be chewed out by her mother for it. 

So, her brain was at a crossroads when it came to his inquiry. 

“I…I’ll get back to you on that,” she finally said, walking over to the window seat and plopping down on the cushion beside him, letting out a huff of breath as she sat. 

She had known that having a baby was going to change things, including probably making things a little more complicated, but she didn’t think she’d have to deal with all this stuff before the kid was even here. It was all really exhausting, in more ways than one. 

“Hey, are you feeling alright?” 

The sound of Bow’s voice made her jump slightly, partly because she hadn’t even realized that she’d started to doze off; she must’ve been even more tired than she had originally thought. 

She looked over at him, and if his words hadn’t already been more than enough, the concern in his eyes was practically palpable. Glimmer smiled to help reassure him. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said. “Just had a bit of a hard time sleeping last night, so I’m kinda tired. But otherwise, I’m good.” 

It wasn’t a total lie – she really did have a bit of a hard time sleeping the night before, mostly due to having to do some experimentation to get into a comfortable enough position – but she wasn’t entirely sure if the last part was truth or just optimistic denial; and she didn’t know if the denial was more for Bow’s benefit or her own. Because she really wasn’t feeling all that great, if she was being totally honest with herself. 

Even taking into account the fact that she’d had a hard time sleeping, she was pretty drained. 

And that wasn’t even what worried her the most – no, that honor belonged to the way her powers seemed to have been working lately. Despite her having fully charged the day before, when she had teleported out of bed that morning, she nearly collapsed. It was like all of the energy she had absorbed from the Moon Stone just the day before had just faded away, even though she was certain she had not done anything to use up so much of her power. 

Glimmer had no idea what it meant, and it scared her more than she wanted to admit, even though she was pretty sure most of her energy had returned to her since then. 

However, at the same time, she didn’t want to worry Bow (partly because if he thought something was even potentially wrong, he’d be less than willing to go with her plan of waiting a few more days to tell her mother the news), and so she decided to just keep quiet and hope it was nothing. 

He frowned slightly at this, and for a moment, the princess felt her heart starting to beat a little faster, afraid that maybe he hadn’t believed her. 

“…Are you sure?” he asked, sounding just a tad skeptical as the words left his mouth. 

Glimmer nodded in response, hoping her uncertainty wasn’t showing. 

“I’m just gonna take a nap later, and maybe recharge for a bit. You know I always feel better after that,” she told him. 

That finally seemed to get through to him, and she saw his body visibly relax as the corners of his mouth turned up slightly in a smile; he still looked a little worried about her, but Glimmer figured that this was the best she was going to get in regards to that – at least for the time being. 

In truth, she was also just hoping that her assumption that recharging would help her feel a little better was right; because she had no idea what she was going to do if it wasn’t. 

“Do you want me to go?” Bow asked. When she looked at him with confusion, he clarified what he meant. “So you can take a nap, I mean.”

Glimmer couldn’t help but laugh a little at the suggestion. Did he really think she wouldn’t be able to sleep if he was in the room with her? 

“Pretty sure that’s not going to be an issue,” she replied in an almost teasing tone. 

It was at that moment that the archer seemed to realize just how silly his earlier suggestion had been. His cheeks went red and he rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish chuckle. He muttered a brief apology, which honestly just made her smile even more. 

“It’s fine,” she assured him, cupping one cheek with her hand as she placed a kiss on the other. It had the effect she was hoping for – all of the residual embarrassment he might have felt seemed to have melted away; at the very least, he seemed much more comfortable than he had a few moments ago. 

Inching closer, Glimmer wrapped her arms around Bow and rested her head on his shoulders. She closed her eyes with a smile as she felt his arms wrap around her in return. 

“You know…there’s no reason why you couldn’t join me,” she muttered. As she spoke, she maneuvered slightly so that she could nuzzle her head into the crook of his neck. 

When he spoke, she could almost hear him grinning, despite the almost endearingly exasperated tone in his voice. 

“Glimmer…” was all he said, but the tone was enough for her to know exactly where he would have gone, if she’d given him a chance to continue with that train of thought. 

She rolled her eyes, though she kept smiling as she pushed away to look him in the eyes; as though he realized she wasn’t trying to actually get away, he kept his arms wrapped around her. 

“I was just talking about taking a nap together, you know,” she told him plainly. The princess couldn’t help but smirk a little as she added, “Though, even if I wasn’t, I think it’s a little late for us to be worrying about that sort of thing at this point.” 

Bow snorted a little in an attempt to stifle his laughter. Which ended up not working out so well in the end, as he ended up chuckling a little anyway. 

“Okay, okay, you have a good point,” he admitted through the last bit of laughter. 

The two of them just sat there for a moment, not doing much other than Bow lowering his head so that their foreheads were touching. Despite the fact that she knew they both had a lot to deal with in the near future, Glimmer couldn’t help but feel content in this moment; content and happy. She let out a sigh – which quickly transformed into a surprised yelp as the door to her bedroom slammed open without any warning. 

In her defense, not only did Bow scream as well, but he seemed to instinctively grab her more tightly in response to the sudden intrusion. 

“Am I interrupting something?” 

The two turned to face Adora, standing in the doorway with a slightly uncomfortable position; not without reason, as she had accidently walked in one them when they’d been trying to have a private moment – more than once, actually. “Please tell me I’m not interrupting something.” 

Despite the fact that her heart was still racing a little, Glimmer managed to regain most of her composure as she and Bow parted, albeit with a little bit of reluctance. 

“Nothing much, anyway,” she told her friend, unable to keep her voice from taking on just a tinge of sarcasm. She couldn’t help it; even if she did love Adora, she and Bow had been having a moment before she just barged in like that. 

Bow cleared his throat, and then asked, “Is there something going on?” 

There was a split second of silence during which it seemed to dawn on everyone present just how unnecessary that question had been. After all, even if it wasn’t her first time coming in without knocking, it wasn’t like Adora to slam a door open like that unless she had a good reason, usually because she had some sort of important news to share. 

The Princess of Power quickly dropped her somewhat awkward mannerisms at the question; now she was all business. That was when they knew the situation was serious. Adora may have learned to relax, at least somewhat, over the years she’d spent with them in Bright Moon, and just as part of the Alliance in general, but when things got serious, so did she. 

“A report just came in – there’s a squadron of Horde soldiers attacking a village near the outskirts of the Whispering Woods,” she explained, her fingers twitching slightly as she spoke, as though she was barely resisting the urge to charge into battle right at that moment. “There’s already been a distress call sent out to the others – I just wanted to let you know before Catra and I headed there on Swift Wind.” 

After that, it didn’t seem like there was anything more that needed to be said. Adora just gave her friends a slight nod, accompanied by a look, and then dashed off, presumably in search of Catra, her steed, or both. 

Within seconds of her leaving, Glimmer was pushing herself off of the window seat – a task that she did not want to admit was starting to get a touch more difficult as her stomach continued to grow. 

“Okay,” she began as she turned to face Bow, who was still seated. “Let’s go.” 

Bow’s eyebrows furrowed at this statement, and Glimmer frowned when she noticed his change in expression; already able to get an idea of what was going to follow. 

“You cannot be thinking of going into the fight,” he said. His words came across as disbelieving, but his tone made it abundantly clear that he already knew what was on her mind. And he probably did; after so many years together, they’d reached a point where, more often than not, they could all but literally read each other’s minds. 

Glimmer didn’t say anything, but that was enough for Bow.

He instantly got to his feet, taking hold of her hand before he was even fully standing. Even without him saying a word, Glimmer knew what he was thinking, and she squeezed his hand in an attempt to reassure him. 

Based on the look he was giving her, it didn’t work. So, she tried to go for a more direct form of reassurance. 

“Don’t worry – I’ll be fine,” she told him, making sure to sound as confident as she could. In truth, she was just a little unsure of what she was saying, but she didn’t want to think about that, and Bow definitely didn’t need to know.

When she saw that the expression on his face had not changed, she sighed and added, “We’ve dealt with the Horde tons of times before, Bow. You know I know how to deal with them. Plus, you know my mom pretty much as well as I do – if she hears I sat out of a fight with the Horde, she is going to know something’s up.” 

Now the archer’s expression changed, going from concerned to incredulous in the blink of an eye. 

“You want to fight…because you don’t want to tell your mom yet?” he asked, his voice breaking slightly as he spoke; an obvious sign that he was struggling to hold back the emotion that was bubbling deep inside him. 

Glimmer could feel her cheeks start to heat up as she looked not at her boyfriend, but stared down at the floor out of the corner of her eye. 

She knew she didn’t have to answer the question, just as he knew he didn’t really have to ask it. They had both already known the answer as soon as she had explained her reasoning for why she felt she should take part in this battle. 

Glimmer felt a hand on one of her shoulders, though she didn’t look up until she felt the same light pressure on the other side. She braced herself for an angry or at least a judging, stare - but instead got a look that showed both concern and understanding. It made her relax considerably to see him look at her that way instead. 

“Look, Glimmer, I know you’re scared of how your mom is going to react when she finds out about the baby. Believe me, I’m scared, too,” he told her, and when he saw Glimmer opening her mouth to say something, he held up a finger in a silent request. 

After a moment’s hesitation, along with just a touch of visible reluctance, the princess shut her mouth and nodded; acknowledging that she would let him finish. 

“But I’d rather deal with your mom being upset at me for this, than have anything happen to you. To either of you.” 

He briefly glanced down at her stomach before meeting her eyes again, and Glimmer couldn’t help but smile, in spite of the slight frustration she still felt. She should have known…

”I know you can take care of yourself in a fight, but we’ve both had a lot of close calls in the past, and with all of this going on…I just can’t risk it.” His expression hardened slightly, even as his touch was gentle as could be, his hands sliding down her arms to take her hands in his. He didn’t look angry, just serious. “Just…stay here until the fight’s over. If your mom asks about it, we’ll tell her the truth together when I get back.”

Even though she still wasn’t pleased with what he was asking of her, Glimmer could help but smirk a little at the confidence – or, more accurately, the hope – in his voice as he talked about coming back from the fight; it was always reassuring to hear something like that before a battle, no matter how big or small. 

There was more to be said – or, at least, Glimmer felt like there was – but there wasn’t time. Before she even had a chance to begin to open her mouth, she felt Bow’s hand on her forehead, brushing her hair out of the way before his lips touched the same spot. 

“I should probably get going,” he said, sounding just a bit unsure of himself as he spoke. 

Placing a hand on her shoulder, he gave it a gentle squeeze and added, “I’ll think of something to tell everyone – don’t worry about that.” 

Once again, the commander felt her face starting to heat up slightly; she didn’t think her concern over that had been so apparent, but evidently she’d been wrong about that. 

After giving her that bit of reassurance, Bow headed out the door to prepare to join Adora, Catra, Swift Wind, and presumably the rest of their allies on the battlefield, leaving Glimmer standing alone in her empty bedroom. 

She plopped back onto the window seat with a sigh, running her hand over her face. 

She understood why Bow didn’t want her to take part in this fight – she really did. 

As much as she hated to admit it, none of them had a perfect track record when it came to confrontations with the Horde, even after years of experience. Injuries happened often, and while they usually weren’t too severe, that wasn’t always the case; and now with the baby, there was a lot more at risk. 

Not to mention the whole thing with her powers acting kind of weird lately, though obviously Bow didn’t know anything about that – and she had no intention of telling him, at least until she knew for sure if it was actually anything to worry about. But, at the same time, it didn’t feel right to her, just sitting back while her friends fought. Even when her connection to the Moon Stone had been severed, she had still fought, despite her being unable to teleport, and having to deal with the painful glitches.

However, that wasn’t the biggest reason she wanted to be out of the castle at the moment…

”Is everything alright?” The sound of her mother’s voice is soft but unexpected, and Glimmer can’t help but squeak a little in surprise at the question. 

Probably didn’t help that she’d just been thinking about her mother, so the Queen’s sudden appearance had an extra layer of shock for her daughter; almost as though she had known she’d been being thought about just then. 

Glimmer got onto her feet in an instance as she saw her mother looking into her room. For a moment, she was prepared to call her out on not respecting her privacy and just opening the door without knocking; but then she realized that Bow hadn’t closed the door as he left – meaning her anger was unfounded. 

However, it didn’t change the fact that she wished she’d had more of a warning before her mother just seemed to show up right outside her bedroom door. Especially considering the fact that she knew it was even easier to tell that her abdomen was swollen when she sat down, and she still was not ready to deal with the questions she knew would come up if her mom noticed that particular change to her body. 

Even then, she tried to position herself in a way that she hoped would both seem casual, and not draw too much attention to herself; not to mention silently praying that her shirt did a better job at hiding everything that she had originally thought upon examining her reflection earlier. 

“Yeah, Mom, I’m fine,” Glimmer told her mother, perhaps sounding just a little more insistent than she had intended, if the slight raise of the Queen’s eyebrow was any indication. She didn’t say anything, but just that tiny look of skepticism made the younger woman’s heart start to pound. 

Not wanting to draw attention to herself, Glimmer chose not to say anything for a few seconds, figuring that her mom would voice her concerns, if she had any. 

“I noticed your friends leaving for the battle,” Angella began, sounding as though she was choosing her words carefully. “I was…surprised to see you weren’t with them.” 

“I just wanted to make sure I was charged up before I left, that’s all!” Glimmer practically shouted less than a second after her mother had finished her own statement. She had meant to be quieter; but, in her defense, she had panicked. 

Before Angella could say anything more, Glimmer activated her magic, silently praying that her powers would actually work this time. She did not want to have to deal with the questioning she knew would come up if her teleportation messed up in front of her mother. 

To her immeasurable relief, she did manage to teleport herself up to the Moon Stone – though she found herself nearly collapsing onto the sort of bed that had been set up for her there the second she materialized. 

Apparently the power draining situation was still a thing…

Glimmer briefly bit her lip before shoving those worries aside. There were more important things to worry about right now, she reminded herself as she lay underneath the glowing runestone. She closed her eyes, and after a few moments, felt the familiar sensation of energy coursing through her as her magic was fully charged. 

However, despite knowing her magic was now fully charged, the princess chose not to teleport out of the chamber; mostly because she’d come to realize that she could not depend on her charges to last as long as they used to. And now that she knew she had to take part in the fight – or else raise suspicion from her mother – she had to save up as much magic as she could. 

So, rather than teleport to the ground, she simply raced down the stairs hidden within the tower – a decision that still resulted in her feeling fairly winded, but at least she knew she hadn’t used up any of her magic just to leave the chamber. 

Now she just had the issue of finding out where exactly the fight was taking place, so she could join her friends; Adora hadn’t exactly given them a lot of concrete information when telling her and Bow about the attack, after all. 

Thankfully, it didn’t take her long to find a couple guards who she’d figured might at least have some idea of where she needed to go. She quickly walked over to them – not running, as she had a feeling that would end badly for her – calling out to get their attention, which she did. 

“Do you know exactly where the Horde attacked?” she asked. Glimmer chose her words carefully, to ensure that there wasn’t any risk of vague wording resulting in her being left to look for more information. She needed to get away from the castle and towards the battlefield as quickly as possible; before anyone else felt the need to question why she hadn’t already left. 

The guards looked at Glimmer, and then at each other. 

Even though she couldn’t see much of their expressions through their helmets, the commander had a good feeling she knew what that look was about. 

“I had to recharge, okay?” she explained in an exasperated tone of voice. 

Evidently, that was all the guards needed to hear, because almost as soon as she gave that explanation, the taller woman turned and gave her the location of the battle: Elberon. 

Glimmer almost had to laugh at this revelation. Of course the Horde would attack the last village she’d been stationed at before meeting Adora and ushering the beginning of the current incarnation of the Princess Alliance. It was almost funny, if it weren’t such a serious situation. 

Instead of laughing, however, she saluted to show her thanks, before rushing off to the stables – which still existed, in spite of Swift Wind’s near-constant arguments in favor of having them demolished. 

Yes, they did have a couple of vehicles stowed away – built courtesy of Entrapta – but Glimmer felt the horse was the better option…especially considering she knew her sudden arrival would not be appreciated by her friends who were privy to her condition, and the last thing she wanted was to alert them with the sound of an engine whirring towards them. 

She approached one mare, which snorted and nickered as Glimmer hoisted herself onto her back, letting out a small puff of breath as she managed the task, though not without what felt like an embarrassing amount of effort on her part. 

But, the important thing was that she was able to get onto the horse in the first place, and she had managed to do that. 

Swallowing away the lump in her throat, the princess of Bright Moon bumped the sides of the horse with her feet, urging the creature towards the village of Elberon, trying to ignore the sound of her own heart pounding in her ears, and the almost twisting feeling her gut felt with every beat of the horse’s hoofs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

“What do they even want with this place, anyway?” Catra asked as she wrestled a baton out of the hands of the Horde soldier who had just tried to attack her, giving the poor sap a slash across the exposed skin of their head for good measure. “No offense to the people who live here, but it’s not exactly anything worth attacking, if you ask me.” 

The village of Elberon had been evacuated the instant the princesses had arrived to fend off the attacking Horde soldiers and their bots; the last thing the Rebellion wanted was to get innocents caught in the crossfire. Which meant there was no real worries about holding back, on either side; not that the Horde would have held back, regardless of who might get hurt from their attacks. 

“It doesn’t matter why they’re here – we just need to make them leave,” Adora responded. 

She had transformed into She-Ra before arriving at the battlefront, and was currently astride Swift Wind as they took out the airborne Horde bots. 

Perfuma momentarily looked away from where she was using vines to restrain a handful of soldiers to create a few more vines to swat the falling bots away; though she winced a little as one landed dangerously close to a nearby dwelling, just barely missing the small cottage. 

She was able to prevent most of them from falling, while the others were caught and carted away by the two robots that Entrapta had managed to bring along with her. The ruler of Dryl gave barely more than a nod in response when her partner thanked her for the assistance her bots had given, but that was more than enough for the Plumerian woman to know she’d been heard. 

Out of all the combatants, Mermista and Frosta were struggling the most, a side effect of the fact that Elberon lacked any significant bodies of water for them to use. 

The princess of the seas had managed to somewhat mitigate this disadvantage by use of a pair of pouches hanging on each of her hips, each filled to the brim with water. That was enough to give her something to fight with, but it was painfully clear that she would have preferred having a lake, or even a small pond, nearby. 

The youngest of the rebels present was faring a little better, though it was apparent that she was being cautious with her blows, knowing that if her weapons were damaged, replacing them would become increasingly difficult as the battle waged on. 

Still, despite the disadvantage they, along with the rest of the Alliance taking part in the battle, were holding their own. 

Bow was notching one of his arrows and was just about to let it fly, when he heard a faint, but very familiar, twinkling sound coming from his side. 

“Glimmer!” he hissed loudly through his teeth as the princess suddenly materialized beside him in a flurry of sparkles. As he called out her name, he’d released the arrow he’d been prepping just seconds before, thankfully taking down one of the Horde bots that had been starting to advance on their party. 

Despite everything, he briefly turned his attention away from the battle to focus on Glimmer; a concerned reaction, as within a second of teleporting onto the field, she visibly stumbled, as though the act of using her powers had left her disoriented. Bow quickly took a step forward to bridge the small gap between the two of them, reaching out to steady the young woman as she stumbled again, holding onto her until it appeared that she’d gotten her bearings. 

“You shouldn’t be here,” he practically hissed at her, glancing out of the corner of his eye to make sure there weren’t any attacks they had to be immediately aware of. “What if…” 

She didn’t give him a chance to finish, cutting off his question by wordlessly holding out her hand and summoning her staff. 

“It’ll be fine,” she assured him, though the unsure expression that crossed over her face for barely more than a heartbeat made Bow very aware that the attempt at reassurance wasn’t just meant for him. 

The archer’s brow furrowed slightly as he saw this, and he again reached out to her. She vanished before he could make contact, leaving his hand hovering in the empty air for a second – which ended quickly as he found himself having to leap out of the way of an attacking soldier, who had clearly decided to take advantage of his briefly distracted state. 

Bow barely managed to hold up his bow quickly enough to block the baton that had been swung towards his head, and he still ended up being pushed back slightly from the force of the blow. 

Once he’d regained his footing, he pushed back with as much strength as he could muster -which was thankfully enough to shove away the enemy soldier enough that he could prepare himself for a counter attack. Without really thinking, he pulled out one of his trick arrows and fired it at the soldier in front of him; with a small snap, the head of the arrow opened up as it hit the armored soldier, encasing their upper body in a tight net and causing them to stumble backwards as they lost their balance.

Bow didn’t stay long enough to see if they’d managed to pull themselves back up; he had other, much more important, things to worry himself over right now. 

He ran away, keeping part of his mind focused on the battle (and occasionally defending himself, or helping defend his friends from enemy attack), while the other part kept scanning the battlefield, trying to spot any sign of his girlfriend. He didn’t see anything, but the familiar sound of her teleporting made him realize she was (or would be) nearby soon enough. 

To his relief, he spotted her as she suddenly appeared a few yards away, the silhouette that shimmered in before she fully materialized making it clear that she was preparing to whack the Horde soldier with her staff – presumably in combination with her usual sparkle bombs. 

But, as soon as her body became solid in the shower of sparkles that signaled her arrival, she doubled over, and even from where he stood, Bow could tell one of her hands was clutching at the fabric of her shirt near her stomach, while the other held tightly to her staff, now stuck into the ground in an attempt to give her something to steady herself. 

Bow’s eyes widened and he felt his heart start to beat faster as he watched the scene, unable to look away, frozen in place for what felt like an eternity, though in reality less than a moment passed before he managed to wrench his feet from the ground. 

Unfortunately, that brief moment of hesitation was clearly more than enough for the Horde soldier, who was obviously intelligent enough to take advantage of the opportunity granted to them in this moment. 

In the span of maybe three seconds – if that – the armored soldier had pulled out a baton (thankfully not electrified) and whacked the already winded commander in the gut; with enough force to the blow to cause her to cry out in very obvious shock and pain, doubling over even more as she released her hold on her staff in order to clutch at her stomach with both hands. Bow was already filled with dread that kept him frozen in place, which only grew as he saw the soldier raise the baton above his head…only to bring it down, hard, on the back of Glimmer’s skull. 

“Glimmer!” Bow shouted, his body finally listening to his mind’s shouts for him to do something, anything, as she collapsed onto the ground, knocked out from the blow. Without even worrying about the possibly of being attacked, the archer quickly made his way over to the two. 

He saw the soldier raise the baton once more, but before they could strike another blow to the already unconscious woman, they let out a scream of agony and released their hold on the weapon, allowing it to drop to the ground as they clutched at their shoulder with the opposite hand. More specifically, they clutched at the area immediately beside where the arrowhead had sunk in, not hitting anything major, but having been shot out with enough force to end the soldier’s attack on the already injured Commander of Bright Moon. 

Bow couldn’t see the man’s face, but he had a feeling he knew what expression he was wearing, especially when he aimed another arrow at the opposite shoulder; a silent warning of what he was willing to do, should the Horde recruit try to attack again. 

Thankfully, the warning seemed to be enough, and the soldier backed down after that. Bow felt his shoulders relax just slightly…but the relief didn’t last long as he turned his attention to Glimmer. A quick glance showed that she was still breathing – which was a huge relief to the archer – but she was also unconscious, which worried him. And that wasn’t even going into the blow she’d taken to her stomach before the enemy soldier had decided to knock her out…

”We gotta get out of here,” Bow said as he carefully pulled Glimmer up, wrapping one arm around her to help keep her upright while allowing her to leaning against him for added stability. 

As soon as he said it, however, he realized one very important problem: he had no idea how he was supposed to get away from the battlefield, especially with the injured young woman in tow. Bright Moon wasn’t really all that far away – it was technically within walking distance – but he didn’t know how badly Glimmer was hurt, and he didn’t want to waste the time if he didn’t need to. Not to mention traveling on foot would leave them very vulnerable…

Bow bit his lip as he tried to think of a solution that wouldn’t negatively impact either himself or any of his friends, biting down harder as he found himself shooting down each option as soon as it came to his mind. 

“Looks like you could use a ride.” 

The sound of Swift Wind’s voice started the archer, and he had to consciously resist the urge to yell out or jump in response to the sudden interruption of his thoughts. As he recovered from the shock, he found himself relaxing…but also somewhat confused. 

“Where’s Adora?” he questioned, looking at the empty space on Swift Wind’s back, where the Princess of Power had been just moments before. It was a rare sight that she was not riding upon her steed during battle, so her absence was noteworthy, even if it wasn’t the most pressing thing on Bow’s mind at the moment. 

Before the horse could speak, the archer got his answer – in the form of She-Ra letting out a brief battle cry as she hit an attacking soldier over the head with the flat side of her sword’s blade – hitting with enough force that the enemy was knocked out immediately, falling to the ground like their legs had literally been cut from under them. 

Even though the other soldier was an enemy, Bow had to wince as he watched them fall; he could only imagine how much that blow had to hurt. 

“You sure she’s okay with you taking us back to Bright Moon?” Bow questioned Swift Wind, even as he was already helping Glimmer onto the horse’s back, doing his best to keep her steady on the perch until he hopped on as well. 

“Pretty sure She-Ra can handle things with her trusty steed for a bit,” Swift Wind replied, just as Adora sliced an attacking soldier’s baton clean in half. “Besides, looks like you really need that ride right about now.” 

With that out of the way, the young man nodded in agreement before hoisting himself onto the stallion’s back – which was just a touch trickier than normal, considering he had to make sure Glimmer stayed steady at the same time. Still, it only took a second before they were both more or less settled, and Swift Wind was taking off, maneuvering to dodge laser fire (both stray and aimed) until they were safely out of range. 

As they flew towards Bright Moon, Bow kept checking up on Glimmer, trying to see if he could get some idea of how serious her injuries really were. She was knocked out cold, but did seem to at least be able to respond to certain thing, if the occasional wince she made, especially when the archer gently touched her head to look at where she’d been struck, was any indication; which, Bow figured, had to be a good sign. 

Still, he was incredibly grateful that Swift Wind was clearly not only taking the quickest route back to the castle, but also seemed to be flying as fast as he could. The quicker they got Glimmer some help, the better. 

“Okay, so…I’m not really an expert on how this sort of thing works for humans, but…I don’t think having pregnant women on the battlefield is exactly the best idea,” Swift Wind commented, causing Bow to look up with a bit of a start. 

“How did you know about that?” he asked, titling his head slightly in confusion. As far as he knew, the only people who’d been told about Glimmer being pregnant were himself, Adora, and Catra…and the other women only knew because they’d happened to be in the room when the Commander found out for herself. 

Though, Adora knowing could very well explain how her steed found out. Even if she had promised to keep the news from other people, it was definitely plausible that she’d figured Swift Wind would be an exception to that, for any number of reasons. 

Bow was thinking about how he hoped Glimmer would be understanding of Adora telling Swift Wind, when suddenly the horse spoke up. 

“You forget that, as a horse, I have incredible instincts that humans lack,” he said, and while he couldn’t see his face, Bow could easily imagine the brief expression of pride that had no doubt spread across the stallion’s face as he spoke. 

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Bow found himself letting out an almost inaudible chuckle; laughing more at his own assumption that Adora had told someone the secret than anything else. 

The breath of laughter was all he gave, however, before he was once more reminded of how severe the current circumstances could be – after all, that was the whole reason why Swift Wind was flying as quickly as he could. 

And, as they flew closer and closer to the castle of Bright Moon, something occurred to Bow: how in the world was he supposed to have the castle medics make sure both Glimmer and the baby were okay, without outright telling them the truth? He may care more about making sure they were both going to be alright than keeping the secret, but he also knew that Glimmer wasn’t ready for everyone to know; and if he could help it, he wanted to honor that…to an extent, at least. 

The guards at Bright Moon were brave and loyal, but at least a few of them were also well-known gossipers. If they heard that Glimmer was pregnant, then it’d take less than a day before everyone else in the castle, if not half the kingdom, knew about it by morning. 

He was still trying to think of a way around the predicament, when Swift Wind let out a whinny to signal their arrival, meaning he’d run out of time to think. 

‘Well’, he thought to himself as Queen Angella made her way towards them, flanked on either side by guards and healers. ‘Guess I’m gonna have to just come up with something…’ 

He climbed off of Swift Wind’s back, carefully getting Glimmer down as soon as his feet were on the ground. Bow was as careful as he could be to not jostle her too much, but the woman still winced as she was moved off the horse’s back. 

“You guys alright?” Swift Wind whispered to Bow, waiting until he got a nod in response before flying off to rejoin the fight back in Elberon. 

“What happened?” And that reminded Bow that he was now basically alone with an obviously upset Queen, and he needed to think of some sort of explanation. 

First he had to actually manage to make himself speak, or at least move; Glimmer’s mom was honestly a little terrifying in moments like this. Even if he knew that she probably wasn’t actually angry at him…that didn’t mean he was looking forward to the conversation that he knew was going to happen. 

A slight groan from Glimmer caught his attention, as well as Angella’s, judging by how her expression changed to show much more concern than before. 

The medics also seemed to take that as their cue to move forward, the head gesturing for the archer to hand over the unconscious woman, which he did without question or hesitation. The quicker she got looked over, the better. 

“She got hit in the head…and she took a pretty hard hit to the stomach,” he quickly explained to the main healer as the rest of his team brought the princess towards the infirmary. 

The older man didn’t say anything, but the nod he gave as he made his own way to the infirmary made Bow feel a sense of relief; he would definitely take the time to look over both injuries carefully, which was exactly what the archer was hoping for by bring up the blow to her stomach. And that meant he’d managed to both keep too many people from learning about the baby, and make sure they’d both get checked on by the medics. 

“Bow…” 

And that reminded him that he still had to deal with not only an upset Queen, but a very upset mother. Swallowing slightly, he turned to face the woman, who was looking down at him with a stern look and a slightly raised eyebrow. 

Before he could say anything, however, Angella made a gesture with her hands, silently ordering the guards to give the two of them a moment alone – which they did without a second thought. 

Once they were alone, Bow felt his heart begin to beat just a tad faster than normal. 

He wasn’t _afraid_ of Queen Angella, necessarily, but he also was not exactly in a rush to have to explain the situation to her. Partly because he was a little worried that he’d accidentally tell her too much; he really did not want to have to deal with having his girlfriend be angry at him because he’d accidentally spilled the beans to her mom. 

“I…I think something happened with her powers,” he finally said, after several seconds of trying to work out what to say in his mind. He still wasn’t sure if that was the right thing to say, but it was better than just standing in silence until the Queen made him talk…at least marginally. 

“What do you mean ‘something happened’?” the tone in the Queen’s voice was almost severe, but her concern was also clear. That didn’t stop Bow from feeling a bit intimidated, however, and he had to stop himself from taking a step back before answering. 

“Well,” he began, doing his best to keep eye contact with the woman in front of him, “she was able to teleport fine, but after she did, it was like she was in a lot of pain. That’s when the Horde soldier attacked her. It all happened so fast…I’m so, so sorry this happened.” 

He hadn’t even realized that he’d looked away as he spoke until he felt a hand on his shoulders, that gentle touch getting him to look up to see the Queen still looking at him. 

She still looked concerned (not that Bow expected anything different, considering the circumstances), but the slight hint of anger appeared to have left her eyes; and that relieved him more than he cared to admit, if he was being completely honest with himself. 

“This isn’t your fault, Bow,” she assured him, trying to smile, though it was clear her heart wasn’t really in the gesture. Still, even the attempt helped to lighten the weight in his chest, if only by a small amount. 

“I know…I know,” he respond, glancing away for a moment before looking back at the woman standing before him. “It’s just…I’m worried about Glimmer, that’s all.” 

That wasn’t really all he was concerned about, of course, but he couldn’t exactly tell Angella the truth; not without having to worry about the fallout of when Glimmer found out what he’d done. 

This time when the Queen smiled, it didn’t seem to be as much of an effort, and there was a familiar look of fondness in her eyes as she looked at him. 

“Glimmer will be…fine, I’m sure,” Angella said, following a moment of silence in which she seemed to be carefully considering her words. There was a clear twinge of hope in her voice, betraying that at least part of the confidence she was attempting to display was just pure optimism, at best. “Thanks in no small part to you.” 

Bow felt his face starting to heat up a little at the compliment. It wasn’t like he hadn’t even gotten complimented before, or even that he’d never been complimented by Angella before; but he wasn’t really sure he deserved it this time. 

At the very least, he knew he wasn’t the only one who deserved credit: Swift Wind had been the one to carry the two of them to safety, after all. Without the horse, saying the two of them would have been in a world of trouble would have been the understatement of the century. 

But, before he could say more than a single syllable, he was cut off by Angella’s voice: “I’ll have one of the medics take care of that for you.” 

“Take care of what?” he questioned, genuinely confused until he noticed that she was looking at his leg. When he glanced down, he noticed was she had been referring to – a burn on his shin, most likely caused by stray laser fire as he’d been moving to stop the soldier from attacking Glimmer while she was down. He’d been so focused on making sure Glimmer was okay, that he’d barely even noticed it until right now. 

“It’s fine,” he insisted; and he did believe his own words – the injury did sting, but he was certain it wasn’t so bad that he couldn’t treat it himself. “You don’t have to –“ 

“Consider it thanks for helping keep my daughter safe,” Angella said, in a voice that made Bow certain that if he tried to refuse the offer, she was going to just play the “Queen-card”, as he called it, and make him accept. So, he accepted the offer, albeit not without more than a touch of reluctance. 

“You’ll let me know when it’s okay for me to go see her, right?” he asked as one of the free medics came over to lead him away to have his wound treated. 

Queen Angella assured him that she would, and after the one healer led Bow away, she went towards the infirmary. 

There was no way of knowing if they’d finished treating her daughter, of course; she just wanted to be certain she was nearby when they did, so she could hear whatever news the healers had as soon as possible. 

Plus, Bow’s mention of Glimmer being in pain after teleporting had concerned her more than she’d let on. She wanted to speak with the head medic about it, or at least bring the issue up to him before she could speak with her daughter about what had happened. 

As she stepped into the hall where the infirmary was located, however, she was surprised to see Crates, the head medic of Castle Bright Moon, already stepping outside of the infirmary. 

“Is everything alright?” she asked as she approached the man, who only just now seemed aware of her presence. To his credit, if he was surprised, he didn’t show it; just gave a brief bow of his head before answering the question. 

“She has a slight concussion, but as long as she takes it easy for a bit, it should be fine. I’d recommend having her spend the night, just for observation.” Angella nodded her consent, before gesturing for him to continue. “We also examined her abdomen, and there doesn’t seem to be any serious damage done, though she will definitely have quite the bruise in that area. Though…the examination did turn up some…unforeseen results.” 

At that last statement, which almost seemed to be the healer speaking more aloud to himself than to her, the Queen felt her heart starting to race a little; and right after she’d started to relax when she’d been informed her daughter would be alright. 

“…And what do you mean by ‘unforeseen results’?” she all but demanded to know, her tone stern in an attempt to hide the fact that she was truly afraid to hear what he could say next. 

To Crates’ credit, if he was intimidated by her tone, he didn’t let it show. Instead, he kept a professional attitude as he gave an answer to the question he’d just been asked. 

“She’s pregnant – roughly sixteen or seventeen weeks by my estimation, though I did take a small blood sample to get something more accurate,” he explained, pausing for a moment to allow for her to process the news before adding in one last statement, almost as an afterthought. “Amazingly, the baby seems to be doing well, in spite of the Commander’s injuries, or her apparent lack of prenatal care. But, that is another reason that I’d like to keep her in the infirmary overnight – just to be certain everything is alright with both her and the child.” 

“Of course,” Angella said, though it was clear that her mind was somewhere else at the moment. 

She thanked the healer for his help, and gave a quick glance at the doors of the infirmary before bidding Crates farewell and making her way to her chambers. She had some messages that she needed to send, and the sooner she could send them, the better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone was wondering about the name of the head medic at Bright Moon, his name actually comes from Hippocrates. Which is where the Hippocratic oath comes from, and I figured that would be a pretty fitting name for what basically equates to a doctor in this universe. Though I will leave it up to interpretation as to whether his full name is actually just "Crates", or if he has the name name as his inspiration. 
> 
> We'll get to see more of how Angella is handling the news in the next chapter, as well as her speaking with Glimmer about what she's learned, among other things - including learning who Angella wanted to send the messages to. Does anyone have any guesses as to who she's so eager to get in contact with?


End file.
